 My name is Liz Grande and I'm the President of the United States Institute of Peace. USIP is a public institution established by Congress in 1984 to work with partners around the world to prevent and help resolve violent conflict abroad. USIP is pleased to welcome everyone to this special conversation on the enduring legacies of the Vietnam War and the path forward. In the decades since the war ended, Vietnam and the United States have taken important steps to rebuild trust and repair relations between our two countries. Vietnam's cooperation has been essential to the US government's attempts to account for missing US personnel from the war and we remain grateful for that partnership which continues to this day. For its part, the United States has stepped forward to address the challenges caused by unexploded ordinance and Agent Orange. Senator Leahy's leadership in these efforts has been exceptional. When he was in Vietnam last week, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin acknowledged and celebrated the steps our two countries have taken saying, quote, we have built a foundation of trust and understanding tied to our decade long cooperation on war legacy issues. Today we will explore an important new partnership between Vietnam and the United States government called the Vietnamese war time accounting initiative. The aim of this partnership is to support the efforts of the Vietnamese people to search for those still missing and help recover their dead. All of us hope that these efforts will help to bring a major closure to families across Vietnam. For our part, USIP is proud to formally announce the launch of a new Vietnam war legacies and reconciliation initiative here at the Institute. This initiative at the request of Congress aims to facilitate continuing dialogue between the US and Vietnam through a series of bilateral discussions and public engagement in both countries. Later this year, as part of this initiative, USIP will convene a follow up event to today's discussion, bringing together families who are personally connected to recovery missions to better understand the human impact of these efforts. We are very pleased to be joined today by a distinguished group of speakers to discuss these initiatives. We're delighted to begin with keynote remarks from Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont who has played a leading role in the United States in addressing and overcoming the legacies of the Vietnam war. We would not be here without his leadership and commitment over many years. Senator Leahy will be followed by Deputy Minister of National Defense for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Senior Lieutenant General Huang Xuyen Qian. Senior Lieutenant General Qian is a top ranking officer in the Vietnam People's Army and has served in many important positions within the Army. Last month, General Qian was appointed Deputy Minister of National Defense and was recently appointed as head of steering committee 701 standing board to address the legacies of war, replacing Senior Lieutenant General Wen Shi-vin following his retirement last April. We'd also like to extend a special welcome to Ambassador Ngoc who has been such a valuable partner on USIP's new initiative. We encourage everyone to engage with us on Twitter using hashtag USAVietnam. I'm now delighted to turn the floor to Senator Leahy for his opening remarks. Thank you very much, Leece. I wanted to tell you how a problem of view and thanks to the United States Institute of Peace for hosting this event. I'm very grateful for the strong interest USIP has shown in the work of the United States and Vietnam are doing to address some of the most difficult legacies of the war. I also want to welcome our counterparts from Vietnam's Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including my good friend Ambassador Ha Kim Ngoc, as well as officials from our Department of Defense, our Department of State, and the US Agency for International Development. I want to begin, though, by expressing my condolences to our friends in Vietnam with a number of COVID cases have dramatically increased in the past few weeks. The United States has provided some vaccines, but we know it's not enough. We're all in this together because we know that as long as the virus is spreading anywhere, there's a threat to people everywhere. You mentioned just five days ago in Hanoi, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. He inaugurated the newest chapter in our war legacy cooperation with Vietnam. I wanted to express my appreciation to him because it illustrates very strongly the importance this has for the United States military and for our country. For the past 30 years, the United States has supported programs to help people in Vietnam who suffer from war-related disabilities to locate and destroy unexploded munitions and bombs in the cleanup areas, contaminate with dioxin, and form a US military base at Da Nang and Benoit. I think so. We've worked closely with our Vietnamese partners. We've come to know, to trust, to respect, and I think especially of my friend, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chivien, who has been an indispensable partner in this before he retired. I very much look forward to continuing this work with his successor, Senior Lieutenant General Wang Zhu Wang Chien, and I'll work and pronounce those correctly. For more than 40 years, the government of Vietnam has helped locate hundreds of American soldiers who are missing in action from the war. They did this even during the years that the United States maintained an economic embargo against Vietnam. That support has not only provided closure for many American families who lost fathers, sons, brothers, it also contributed greatly to building trust and improving relations between our two countries. And now we're taking a first step to reciprocate those many years of cooperation on American MIAs. The program, inaugurated by Secretary Austin in Vietnam's Minister of Defense, the general Van Van Zong, is the first time the United States has embarked on an official multi-year effort jointly with the government of Vietnam to locate and identify some of Vietnam's wartime MIAs. And we estimate those could be in the number of hundreds of thousands. And there are at least that many Vietnamese civilians whose fate remains unknown. It would be difficult to overstate the significance of the fact that the Department of Defense is the lead United States government agency in this effort in cooperating with USAID really shows how far relations between our two countries have progressed. Now, we may know that many families may never recover the remains of their loved ones, but we're going to do what we can to provide whatever archival information and technical expertise we have to enable the government of Vietnam to carry out this work. And I hope that those who are watching and listening will feel as I do that by doing this, only after a war that was such a catastrophe for both our countries, we are setting an example for other former enemies around the world. They can learn from what we're doing today. It's a better future together. So the latest chapter of our war legacy cooperation searching for the Vietnamese were still missing. Maybe the most difficult and the most meaningful. I'm proud to be part of it. I thank each of you and our government in Hanoi and the USIP. Thank you very much. Senator Leahy, thank you for being with us and for your very powerful comments. We now have the honor to turn the floor to senior Lieutenant General Chien for his opening remarks. U.S. Lansing, Senator Patrick Leahy, President pro tempore of the United States Senate, Mrs. Lise Grande, President and CEO of the US Institute of Peace. Ladies and gentlemen, I listened to the speech by the President and CEO of the US Institute of Peace and also the remarks by Senator Patrick Leahy. And it's true that five days ago, the US Secretary of Defense and our minister, Phan Ban Sang, inaugurated a new chapter in the cooperation between the two ministries of defense. And today is my great honor to represent the Ministry of National Defense, the Secretariat of the National String Committee 701 on the sediment of post-war unexploded ordinance and toxic chemicals to address the virtual event addressing the legacies of the Vietnam War, the next step forward hosted by the US Institute of Peace. I'd like to wish you all good health, happiness and success. Ladies and gentlemen, while the Vietnam War ended more than 45 years ago, its legacies including unexploded ordinance, the mines and toxic chemicals continue to have enduring impacts on the safety and health of people, affecting the environment and social and economic development. Statistics estimates area contented with landmines in Vietnam at around 6.1 million hectares, accounting for 18.71% of Vietnam's total area. And many areas were sprayed with Asian orange during the war with Danang, Bien Hoa and Fulkat Air Force being hotspots with 700,000 cubic meters of contaminated soil. Unexploded ordinance has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people and injured another 60,000. Most of the victims are breadwinners and the families and over 4.8 million people were supposed to Asian orange, of which more than 3.2 million were victims of Asian orange, including the elderly, women, children suffering from the dangerous diseases, living in a very difficult life, but also trying hard to rise above the pain. Addressing the war legacies has always been high on the agenda of the party, the government and people of Vietnam to protect the life, health and safety of people, clean the environment and facilitate sustainable economic and social development. And since 2017, the government of Vietnam decided to establish the String Committee 701 chaired by the prime minister. And in addition to our own efforts, six countries and 14 international organizations have joined Vietnam in handling post-war and exploded ordinance and toxic chemicals inflicted on the human beings and the environment. Today I'd like to express my sincere thanks to the United States, Japan, Korea, the Czech Republic, Germany, France, New Zealand, the UK, Iceland and also international organizations like UNDP, Ford Foundation, Hartfield Company, Canada, Simizu Company, Japan, Mines Advisory Group, MAG, Norwegians, People's Aid, Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining. Between 2010 and 2020, Vietnam has continued to work with different countries, including the U.S., including the completion of the Da Nang Airport Remediation Project in 2018. And we also commenced the Daok Sin Remediation at Binh Hoa Air Base area. And also we launched the project to support persons with disabilities in its provinces heavily sprayed with Asian orange. And the project was kicked off in the witness of the Vietnamese government leaders and Senator Patrick Leahy and U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, Daniel Kittenbring in 2019. And also the Prime Minister approved the proposal for investments of Vietnam and also worked with the U.S. to build capacity to develop database and also take my action in Vietnam as part of the 2013 MOU signed between the String Committee 504 and the U.S. Department of State. And the results of award legacy cooperation stands as testimony to the strong partnership between Vietnam and the U.S. On behalf of the National Defense Ministry and the String Committee 701, I'd like to thank the government, the Congress and people of the United States for working closely with Vietnam to address the consequences of unexploded ordinance, toxic chemicals in Vietnam. And in particular, I'd like to express my deep gratitude to Senator Patrick Leahy, a great friend of Vietnam, for his strong and significant efforts in overcoming the war legacies in Vietnam, contributing to the comprehensive partnership between the two countries. The Secretary of Defense also reaffirmed the commitment to war legacy cooperation with Vietnam in his official visit last July. Of course, we have made important progress, but this is only the beginning of a long journey given the huge amount of contaminated soil, especially in the Bien Hoa airbase, because it is five times bigger than what is done in Vietnam. And it may take 10 years to complete, because we just can secure 183 million US dollars, while another 400 million US dollars is needed. And more than 3.2 million victims of air in orange in Vietnam are in need of healthcare, job security and life. The U.S. Institute of Peace holds this important event today, for the second time since 2019. Thank you very much for inviting me to join the event today. I also highly appreciate the event and look forward to more meaningful forms in the future. This is an opportunity for the US and Vietnam agencies, leaders, scientists and experts to better understand what has been achieved in Vietnam and the way forward in the mine action, dioxin remediation and also Vietnamese wartime accounting. Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot rewrite the history, but we can take action to look forward to a brighter future. And the steering committee 701 would like to call on Senator Patrick Lehi, US Institute of Peace, US authorities and all of you to continue to work with Vietnam in war legacy cooperation as committed by our senior leaders. They just met recently. And second, we should identify innovative solutions to make cooperation more effective and faster in addressing the consequences of unexploded artens and toxic chemicals in Vietnam. And third, first, we hope that we can secure resources to accelerate the dioxin cleanup in Bien Hoa Air Base and we will continue to expand in more appropriate and effective manner. The provision of health care and employment for victims of iron orange so that they are not left behind and we can also allow them to overcome physical and psychological pain and also to demine around 50 or 70,000 hectares a year. We hope to see greater and better results in the US, Vietnam war legacy cooperation in the next events, depending the strong relationship between Vietnam and the US. And I'm committed to working and taking over from my predecessor, senior lieutenant, we're achieving to work on war legacies in Vietnam to make it more effective. And again, I'd like to thank you. I'd like to wish you all the best and our event a great success. Thank you very much. Excellent. Mr. Deputy Minister, senior lieutenant, General Qian, thank you for being with us today. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for your introductory comments. We're very pleased now to hand over to Ambassador George Moose, who is the vice chair of the US Institute for Pieces, Board of Directors. Ambassador Moose will be moderating our first session. Ambassador. Thank you, President Grande. This morning, I have the distinct honor and pleasure of moderating our first panel, the first of two, that will help us understand how Vietnam and the United States plan to move forward in addressing the many legacies of the Vietnam War. We are pleased to have as our panelists two distinguished diplomats, each of whom is eminently qualified to speak to the subject. Ambassador Ha Kim Ngoc is one of Vietnam's most senior diplomats over the course of his career. He has held every significant position related to relations with the United States in the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs with responsibility for the Americas. His service in the United States began with an early career posting at the Vietnamese consulate in San Francisco. Mr. Ambassador, welcome back to USIP. Christopher Kline is the charge d'affaires of the US Embassy in Hanoi. He has held senior positions as Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department of State and Deputy Director of the Office of China and Mongolia Affairs. He has also served in key roles in Paris, Baghdad, Beijing, Ashgabat, and at the US mission to the United Nations in New York. But before we begin, I hope I might be allowed to share a brief personal reflection on why I attach such importance to this issue and to this event. As a newly minted Foreign Service Officer, I spent three of the early years of my career in Vietnam. My first assignment was in Quang Ngai province in central Vietnam, which some may recall was where the Milai Massacre took place. Indeed, I arrived in Quang Ngai in January of 1969, just as the story of the massacre was breaking in the international press. I later moved to the US consulate and the regional capital of Da Nang. As it happened, the consulate was located just a few blocks from the air base from which American military aircraft launched their missions, some of which involved the dropping of Agent Orange. I returned briefly to Vietnam and to Quang Ngai province in 1973 following the signing of the Paris Peace Accords and serving as a liaison to the International Control Commission that was monitoring the C-SPI. It was not until 2014 that I was finally able to return to Vietnam again. My wife and I spent a memorable three weeks traveling the country from north to south. We were enormously impressed by the country's vitality and dynamism that everywhere we went, the lingering legacies of the war were apparent, and especially in the stories of the Vietnamese with whom we met. There were two places I was determined to visit. The first was the memorial to the Milai massacre in Quang Ngai province, which I was gratified to learn, had been substantially funded by the contributions of American veterans and veterans organizations. The second was the War Remembrance Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, a museum that documents graphically just how destructive the war was and how the people of Vietnam continue to live with its consequences. For those who have visited the museum, you will certainly recall the large mural on the wall, which shows that the tonnage of ordinance and bombs dropped on Vietnam far exceeded what was dropped during World War II and the Korean War combined. But throughout our visit, what struck us most was the fact that in no place and at no time, were we ever made to feel unwelcome or unwanted. It was a remarkable testimony to the spirit of forgiveness of the people of Vietnam, and it is what gives me both encouragement and hope regarding the efforts our two countries are making together to address the legacies of the war. Now, let me turn to Ambassador Ngoc, to whom I would like to pose the following question. Now, Mr. Ambassador, nearly 50 years after the end of the war, where do war legacy issues fit into U.S.-Vietnam relations? And why is U.S. assistance to account for those still missing important? Thank you, Ambassador George Moose, for your kind introduction and for sharing with us your experience with Vietnam for a long time, both at war time and at peace time now. The Honorable Patrick Leahy, President Protemporary of the U.S. Senate, President of the U.S. Institute of Peace, Lease Rande, Senior Lieutenant General Huan Sun-Tien, Deputy Minister of National Defense, distinguished guest, ladies and gentlemen. Let me begin by expressing my deep appreciation to Senator Leahy for his strong leadership. Mr. Senator, the Vietnamese children call you Uncle Leahy, and whenever they are in trouble with their parents, they call you Mr. Batman, with the hope that Mr. Batman will come and protect them from being grounded. My gratitude also goes to President Grande General Huan Sun-Tien, the Institute of Peace, and all the distinguished guests who join us today. And I would like to take this occasion to congratulate the U.S. Olympic team on their outstanding results in Tokyo. Next, I would like to share with you some good news. This morning, thanks to the timely assistance of the United States, Vietnam is taking another big step forward in our fight against COVID-19. On behalf of the government and people of Vietnam, I would like to express my gratitude to the U.S. government and people for having provided us with an invaluable 5 million doses of vaccines, which has sharply boosted our vaccination rate over the last few days. That even more American vaccines, medicines, and medical equipment are on their way to Vietnam, shows the true spirit of friendship and partnership between our two nations, as Senator Leahy just mentioned. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Another piece of encouraging news, as Senator Leahy also mentioned, is that Secretary of Defense Austin, during his recent visit to Hanoi, witnessed the signing of an MOU on cooperation in seeking, collecting, and identifying VMIA soldiers. This is a significant milestone and another vivid example of the close cooperation between Vietnam and the United States over the long journey of overcoming our legacies of war. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, in the new chapter of our normalized relations, one area of cooperation that witnessed great and sustained efforts from both sides was the addressing of war legacy issues. And we can take pride in the fact that this is a consistently bright spot in our bilateral ties today. Our achievements in this area have played an important role in enhancing other aspects of Vietnam-US relationship. Even more meaningfully, these achievements have helped to mend the wounds of war and to foster reconciliation and trust between the two nations, creating a strong and lasting foundation for deepened cooperation in the decades to come. The way our two countries have chosen to handle our war legacies stands as a paragon a model for turning former foes into good partners and friends. Even as we work with the U.S. government to account for American MIA servicemen, the government and people of Vietnam have made huge efforts to search for the remains of the Vietnamese soldiers missing in the war. We have achieved encouraging results as General Hoang Xuanyin just mentioned, but there is still much to be done. To date, the remains of over 200,000 cases of VMIA have yet to be found and over 300,000 recovered cases are still unidentified. The steps ahead will be increasingly challenging and complex due to a lack of information, changes in topography, poor equipment and technology, and the passing of witnesses. In these circumstances, an agreement to cooperate in accounting for VMIA soldiers will generate new momentum for the ongoing efforts by the government and people of Vietnam. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, for many years the United States has cooperated effectively with Vietnam to address war legacy issues. But even against this background, U.S. assistance for VMIA accounting is a tremendous development and a most poignant symbol of reconciliation and healing. For it touches the heart of hearts of half a million Vietnamese mothers who over the past 50 years have not had a single night of restful sleep, who have waited in never-ending suspense for the return of the remains of their children. In the hearts and minds of these women heroes, the war has passed, but peace has yet to arrive. For their grief and regret cannot be sued as long as their dear children are unable to come home. And to the people of Vietnam in general, who from the very beginning have supported the Vietnamese government's policy towards the United States, set aside the past, look to the future, and foster a new relationship with the United States. This decision by the U.S. government represents in its sincerest, profoundest, and most human form the empathy and compassion of our American friends towards our pain and the loss of our beloved sons and daughters. Once again, on behalf of the government and people of Vietnam, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to express my appreciation to the U.S. government and people. I am truly grateful for the care and dedication given to this new initiative and this important area of cooperation by Uncle Lahi, Brother Tim Riser, and many other American and Vietnamese officials, partners, and friends. My deep appreciation also goes to Senator John McCain, Senator John Kerry, Mr. Bob Mueller, Ms. Ann Mills Griffiths, Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Nguyen Khutac, Vice Minister Le Mai, General Nguyen Chi Vinh, General Huang Sun Qian, and many others. With heart, vision, and courage, they each have made crucial contributions to addressing the legacies of war, promoting reconciliation and healing between our two peoples and bringing our relationship to new heights. I'm confident that today's event will mark a positive start to implementing our recently signed agreement on VMIA. And I hope that the relevant U.S. agencies, especially USAID, will yearmark additional resources for establishing the Center of Excellence in Vietnam for high-tech identification of VMIA soldiers. With our strong resolve and concerted efforts, we may look forward to bringing peace and closure to the Vietnamese mothers who, even to this day, are anxiously waiting on news about their daughters and sons. Let us not rest until our last fallen soldier comes home. Thank you very much for your attention. I thank you, Ambassador Ngoc, for retracing for us that history of Vietnam-U.S. cooperation with regard to dealing with the legacies of the war and also for helping us understand why this new initiative is so important as a continuation and an extension of that cooperation. Thank you for that. Let me turn next to Sharjah Klein. From a U.S. perspective, what more might the United States do to address the legacies of the Vietnam War? And where does this new effort, in your view, fit into our current cooperation? What is it that we hope to achieve? Thank you so much, Ambassador Moose, and it fits well, frankly, but first I want to thank you and Lise and the U.S. Institute of Peace for hosting this very important event. Senator Leahy, thank you so much for your decades-long commitment to repairing and rebuilding and enhancing the U.S.-Vietnam relationship. I think all of us owe you gratitude. Without you, none of our progress over the years would have been possible. And Ambassador Ngoc, thank you for your, frankly, quite moving remarks. I appreciated listening to them very much. And General Qian, General Zong, and others, Tim Rieser, thanks for being with us. You know, the new initiative is just great. And it's an initiative that will help account for Vietnamese dead or missing from the war, and it fits really well, I think, for years-long cooperation with Vietnam to reconcile and address the tragic effects of the war. The Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency and its predecessor organizations have been searching for missing American service members since 1985. And these efforts have been incredibly meaningful to the families and loved ones of 729 U.S. service members who have been identified since we started and talk about meaningful cooperation. Just a few weeks ago, the United States and Vietnam held a repatriation ceremony at Xalam Airfield, and I was there. And this was a place where the first repatriation of American POWs occurred almost 50 years ago. And it's very moving to me that despite the COVID limitations, Vietnam continued to support U.S. recovery efforts even when it was impossible for Americans to join. And this is a clear demonstration of Vietnam's true commitment to our partnership. And we owe you thanks. Former Ambassador Crittenbrink and others have said repeatedly that our common accounting efforts and our work to confront the legacy of the war form the foundation for our current flourishing relationship from our growing security ties to the tremendous trade and development opportunities that exist. None of it, none of it would be possible without U.S.-Vietnam cooperation over decades on war legacy issues. And as Ambassador Moe put it, the heart vision and courage of so many people on both sides. But let me mention a couple of specific war legacy projects at this point. One, you know, in 1993, the United States started the long and difficult work of cleaning up unexploded bombs in central Vietnam. These programs are actually ongoing. We hear about the work every day at the embassy and they show real, tangible progress. And they help make that region in central Vietnam safe for regular people to go about their lives and build a thriving economy that exists there. Another thing, in 2018, USAID completed a multi-year dioxin cleanup project at Da Nang International Airport. I think a lot of us are aware of that. And it made the airport and its surrounding neighborhoods safe to live in and provide for enhanced economic opportunity for Da Nang's residents. We didn't stop there. And we're currently, as was mentioned, currently conducting a 10-year mega project at Bien Hoa Air Base in southern Vietnam to clean up dioxin contamination there. And, you know, as we work together on a new challenge that none of us expected a couple of years ago to fight COVID, you know, I do hope that before long we'll be able to return to facilitating our many in-person veteran-to-veteran exchanges. These are really meaningful and often deeply emotional events and their firsthand demonstrations of reconciliation for service members and their families on both sides of the war. Finally, let me just report a little bit to the group about the visit of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin last week here in Hanoi. You know, reconciliation and war legacy issues had pride of place during the visit. And Defense Minister Zhang and Secretary Austin exchanged artifacts and information on MIA cases as the capstone to their meeting, which was the first meeting of the whole trip. And we really hope that what DPAA provided to the Vietnam office for seeking missing persons will yield results that will bring peace and closure to Vietnamese families, peace, as Ambassador Ngoc was mentioning. So more than just that exchange, we did, during the visit, codify our coming work together by signing an MOU, a Memorandum of Understanding with National Steering Committee 515. And that'll assist Vietnam's accounting efforts. Secretary Austin was a witness to the signing. They were signed by our excellent Defense Attache Tom Stevenson, Colonel Tom Stevenson. And really it's the next step to deepening our war legacy cooperation. And to be honest, it's a recognition of everything that Vietnam has done since 1985 to help us with our own accounting mission. So let me just conclude by underlining that the United States continues to support a strong, prosperous and independent Vietnam. And our work together to confront the past responsibly will continue to form the foundation for future trust and for our future great successes together. Thank you very much, Ambassador. And I thank you very much for that outline of the framework of cooperation that we have built over the years with Vietnam around this issue of the legacies of the Vietnam War. I was especially taken by your comment that even during the COVID pandemic, our Vietnamese friends have continued their work, even though it has not been possible for us to work with them directly. I think that certainly is a testimony to their commitment to this cooperation. If I might, I would like to turn back to Ambassador Ngoc. We have a few more minutes. And I'd like to ask, Ambassador, you have been so deeply involved in US Vietnam relations for over 30 years now. We know a bit about how policies have changed over the years. But what about the tone of our relations? In what ways has your job in Washington been different from that of your predecessors? Thank you for your very interesting question. I think we have witnessed a higher level of interest from the United States. I mean the US administration, the Congress, the NGOs, the war veterans organizations, and people from all work of life in working with Vietnam and contributing to our bilateral relations. Wherever we go and when we meet with American people, they have something very interesting to talk about Vietnam. Maybe their own trips to Vietnam as tourists before the pandemic or their family members, their son and daughters who work in Vietnam as volunteers. And they all tell about interesting story of Vietnam. So I feel very fortunate to have the very strong support and excellent cooperation from the administration official, from Congress, from NGOs and people from all work of life. Thank you, Mr. Ambassador. Perhaps I could, I certainly was struck by your comment about how many of us have been able to return to Vietnam as my wife and I were just a few years ago. And I frankly look forward to our next return as well. But I think again, it reflects just how deeply the two countries and the peoples of the two countries have bonded, notwithstanding the tragedy of the war. Sharjah Klein, might I ask you a question too? We still have just a few minutes here. Your successful visit last week with Secretary of Defense Floyd Austin. Could you share with us a bit more about what else was on that agenda and about the outcomes of the visit and indeed the significance of the timing of the visit? I think the timing was very significant because as Vietnam continues to combat the COVID pandemic, they welcomed the Secretary of Defense with full honors. It was an amazing visit. The Secretary of Defense and the Vietnamese side got a lot of work done. The memorandum that I mentioned during my remarks was one thing. But I think it's important really to underline, especially for this group, the importance of the war legacy issue for setting the tone in all of the meetings that the Secretary of Defense had. So with the Minister of National Defense, the President, the Prime Minister, it came up and it came up in such a positive way. And it wasn't just empty words. It was really a basis for our connection, an emotional connection, I think, that our countries have. And that we have practical work that we have to get done and we're doing it together and moving forward. And I think that when you're able, as two parties, to get practical work done on an emotional issue together, then you can move on to other very ambitious areas. You can get a lot of other great work done on a lot of other issues that are of regional significance, security cooperation. The Secretary of Defense raised security in the region in the South China Sea, the East Sea. And we talked about that, talked about the economic relationship, talked about so many different things. And it was really very much, you know, the tone set through our cooperative relationship on more legacy issues that I think helped really, really move the ball forward. Thanks very much for that, Chris. And let me close this session by thanking, again, Ambassador Kahn and Sharjee Kahn for helping us situate this initiative within the broader context of our ever-expanding relationship. It's clear that this is not just something that is incidental or peripheral to our relationship, but that it is indeed core as it should be and that progress made in this area contributes broadly to the progress of the relationship. So I thank you both. And with that, I would like now to hand the floor to Brian Harding, USIP's senior expert for Southeast Asia. He leads the Institute's new Vietnam War Legacies and Reconciliation Initiative, the one that Lee's grande described in her opening remarks. Brian, may I turn the floor over to you? Thank you very much, Ambassador Moose, for your powerful remarks and facilitating that great conversation. I definitely think we've helped situate the new initiative in the broader context, so thank you for that. I mean, it truly is extraordinary how far we've come, but also as we've heard, the challenge for this initiative and for the full range of war legacy issues remains immense. I'm very pleased to be moderating our second and final panel. And now that we've set the scene, our three speakers in this panel are going to dive into the details of the new Vietnamese wartime accounting initiative. We'll actually assist in practical ways for it to do what we all want to see, the identification of the remains of missing Vietnamese from the war. Our first speaker is going to be Colonel Thomas Stevenson, the US senior defense official in Defense Adache to Vietnam. Colonel Stevenson has served in several key positions as a foreign area officer in the US Army, serving as the director of Southeast Asia Security Cooperation at US Pacific Command, and as the chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation at the US Embassy in Malaysia. Our second speaker will be Anne-Marie Yastushok, who is the mission director to Vietnam from the US Agency for International Development. Ms. Yastushok is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, and prior to becoming mission director in Vietnam, she served at headquarters for USAID in the Bureau of Asia from 2015 to 20 as Acting Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau. Previously, she was the deputy mission director for USAID's regional office that covered the Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, and Cyprus. Our third and final speaker will be Major General Tran Quach-Zung, Chief of the Executive Office of National Steering Committee 515. The NSC 515, which is formerly known as Steering NSC 1237, is responsible for locating, gathering, and identifying the remains of fallen soldiers. The committee is an interagency organization, and the chief of the Executive Office is Major General Zung. General, we're thrilled to welcome you to this event, and I think many of us really look forward to meeting you in person and working with you in the coming years. Thanks for your time discussion. I'll first turn to Colonel Stevenson. We've heard a lot about the initiative and its importance and some of the challenges, but we're hoping that you can walk us through a little bit about what the Vietnamese wartime accounting initiative will do in practice. How are we going to put this into action from the DOD perspective? Yeah, thanks, Brian. In my remarks, of course, I will walk us through the details of the Vietnam wartime accounting initiative. It's a special event of last week. Last week, Minister of Defense Phan Van Zang and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin provided their personal endorsement to our newest accounting effort, the VWIA. Understanding that despite our tragic shared history, the U.S. and Vietnam also see a bright future with overlapping interests empowered to meet the challenges of the current and future strategic environment, be it COVID, climate change, or the challenges in the South China Sea. During this visit, these two leaders also recommitted both of our defense departments to the sacred task of personnel accounting. Knowing that when we send young soldiers into harm's way, leaders are obligated to undertake all efforts to return these soldiers home to family when the mission is complete. So with this strategic endorsement and a fulfillment of our sacred duty, we focus on the practical aspects of the Vietnam wartime accounting initiative supported by six pillars, each of which addresses critical nodes in the accounting mission. The first pillar, improving access to archival information will serve as a nucleus for analytical research which empowers investigative teams with new documents, artifacts, wartime intelligence reports, and historical archives. While these sources exist in abundance, they're neither organized nor accessible in a way that supports personnel accounting, especially for those in Vietnam working across not just Hanoi, but in the provinces. To improve archival access, partners like Texas Tech and Harvard University will assist Vietnamese counterparts navigating the archipelago of wartime archives assisted by the Combined Document Exploitation Center in Lubbock, Texas. The second pillar, applying technology, will expand the techniques and tools used to upload, archive, integrate and access information required by Vietnamese researchers. In time, such technology might incorporate artificial intelligence, virtual communities of interest, and other collaborative tools in not just the military accounting community, but in academia and with veterans, historians, and hobbyists newly enlisted to serve this cause. Pillar three, our third pillar, building capacity will energize the accounting effort to utilize applications of training and in some cases, equipment which the U.S. accounting community has refined for 35 years in order to optimize their own research, their own excavation, lab analysis and forensic identification capacity. The fourth pillar is the one I find most exciting, people-to-people exchanges, the true magic behind the Vietnam wartime accounting initiatives, not just technological tools, not just better archival access, and not just new equipment, but in fact, the new community we create. This includes researchers, families, academics, veterans, and historians who collectively hold fragments which might combine to resolve long, dormant cases. To date, our two parallel accounting communities have worked mostly in isolation. Through people-to-people exchanges, we will physically bring members of these communities together, allowing each to contribute on the basis of their unique marginal advantage and in the hopes of delivering the results from both sides. I expect our people-to-people efforts will also yield an online army, unified in the task of fullest accounting, energized to serve as the investigative foot soldiers in this combined effort. Such collaboration holds the true potential for transformative accounting results. The fifth pillar, led by USAID, reflects the U.S. whole-of-government surge to enhance Vietnam's capability for better accounting. In this case, specifically with DNA analysis and identification. Ms. Anne-Marie Yasteshak, our USAID director and Hanoi leads this project and will further share details. However, we wanted to acknowledge this vital, parallel effort and work to integrate it alongside NSC 515's accounting efforts. The sixth and final pillar is media outreach, which aspires to tell the story of not only our special partnership, but our common purpose to transform the legacy of violence and destruction into deliberate trust-building and focused cooperation. This cooperation is testament that a bitter history will neither weaken us nor be forgotten, but instead our history will unify us as we serve fallen soldiers and those families consumed by an unimaginable void. As we recommit ourselves to this noble mission, we must always remember these families who've waited in anguish for decades. Ultimately, the Vietnam War Time Accounting Initiative, supported by these six pillars, aspires to deliver tangible results, which might help families navigate if not resolve this void. I'm honored to see this effort more from concept into reality and humbly thank all those who provided the resources and expertise to reach this point. By way of acknowledgement, I'd like to thank our friends, supporters and new partners in Hanoi, Washington, Lubbock and Boston. Most of all, thanks to Senator Leahy and Mr. Tim Reaser, Ambassador Moose, Ms. Lees-Gron, the Chargeret de Fair, Chris Klein, and of course our orchestrator today, Mr. Brian Harding. I also want to personally recognize Major Chad Somerville and Major Chuck Casey, the two Marines, the engines and agents of change who literally and figuratively gave us our new MOU and bring us to this day. On the Vietnamese side, our sincere thanks to Ambassador Nock and the leadership at M&D past and present who endorsed this effort, including Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi-ving, and especially Senior Lieutenant General Huang Suan-Xian, who was so instrumental to the successful Secretary of Defense visit last week. And my counterpart, Major General Chiang Guo-Zung, the co-signer of our new MOU with NSC 515. Thank you. And I yield the floor back to you and Brian. Thank you so much, Colonel Stevenson. You're absolutely right. This whole endeavor requires the Army to do it. At USIP, for our part, we're excited to be supporting this initiative of making sure that the publics of Vietnam and the United States know this cooperation is happening, facilitating some of those exchanges. And for those who aren't familiar, I've met and gotten to know the historians that will be working on this project at Harvard University and Texas Tech University. And they're steeped in US-Vietnam relations, have the cultural and historical savvy in addition to the technical skills. And I think we shall be confident that this initiative is truly in good hands. I'd like to next turn to Mission Director Yastushak to talk a little bit about how USAID is going to play into all of this. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Brian. First, I'd like to just say good morning to everyone in Washington from Vietnam. I'm honored to be included really among this esteemed panelists for today's launch event of an important new area of bilateral cooperation. Thank you to USAIP, my colleagues in the Department of Defense and the USG, as well as our Vietnamese counterparts for organizing this event to advance our partnership. And a huge thank you, of course, to Senator Lehi and Tim for their vision and long-term commitment to reframing the relationship between the US and Vietnam and for confronting the issues of the past and moving forward together. I'd also like to give a very special thanks to our MND counterparts. As Senator Lehi mentioned we have developed a relationship based on trust and mutual commitment to working on war legacies and just today we had another productive meeting to identify a way to continue our critical cooperation in the midst of the pandemic. So thank you very much. For us at USAID our goal is to bring the most cutting-edge DNA analysis technology and techniques to Vietnam in order to improve the identification of Vietnamese still missing from the US-Vietnam war and returning the unidentified or identified remains to their families. In July of 2020 we at USAID Vietnam signed a memorandum of intent with the Vietnam Office for Seeking Missing Persons and the VNOSMP on technical support for the identification of human remains with the objective of providing forensic DNA and other genetic analysis assistance. Since we launched this partnership with the government of Vietnam we've been working with the VNOSMP to understand what support Vietnamese experts believe is needed. We have also been consulting with international experts in DNA analysis to better understand the available technologies that can guide our cooperation. To support us in our mission we have provided $2.5 million for a three-year award to the International Commission on Missing Persons or ICMP, the leading public international organization in identifying human remains from global conflicts. The first step is a pilot program to test state-of-the-art DNA analysis technologies on skeletal remains from Vietnam. This pilot will help to identify the most appropriate technologies and procedures for the Vietnamese context. We will then help to transfer the technology to one or more Vietnamese laboratories to improve Vietnam's DNA analysis capacity. We hope that through this approach to adapt new technology we can help the GVN to create a DNA analysis system capable of proceeding or processing the large number of human skeletal remains much faster than is currently feasible. We estimate that using current methods and technology, this task would take Vietnam decades to complete given the up to 850,000 Vietnamese still missing. In addition to the focused DNA work, we at USAID Vietnam will also collaborate with VNOSMP to conduct a holistic needs assessment of the current system for identifying and returning remains from the war to their next to kin. We plan to implement this activity this fall and will provide us with the overview of what the GVN will need to successfully implement this important undertaking. This year we would also like to prioritize a collaborative effort with VNOSMP and other GVN stakeholders to prepare a long-term engagement plan for our support. This support should include technical assistance in capacity building technology transfer and the provision of critical equipment. One important area of future collaboration will be to facilitate the development of comprehensive protocol within the GVN for identification of human remains. The protocol clarify the roles and responsibilities of all key stakeholders and partners such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Ministry of National Defense and other Institutes and private partners. We can also help our government counterparts to develop a budget and identify financial resources that may contribute to this task over the long-term. Our goal is to ensure that Vietnam is set up independently and successfully to identify human remains from the war and bring peace to as many families as possible who lost loved ones. Our support to improve DNA analysis is only part of the broader U.S. government strategy to support Vietnam in reuniting the remains of loved ones with their families. From our own U.S. personnel accounting experience we know this to be one of the most meaningful actions that a government can take. We want to help Vietnam succeed in this important mission. Again, I really want to say thank you very much for this invitation and to be here and for you, Brian and your work in this area and we look forward to working with everyone much closer. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's just really fantastic and seems like it could be transformative, so we look forward to checking back in the future. Finally, we'll turn to Major General Zung, who I hope can give us a sense of how NSC 515 plans to work with the United States in support of the Vietnamese war time accounting initiative. General Zung, the floor is yours. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. President of the United States Senate Mrs. Leslie Grant President and CEO of the U.S. Institute of Peace Senior Lieutenant General Mr. Hoang Seng-Chien, Deputy Minister of National Defence Ambassador Ngoc, ladies and gentlemen first of all, I'd like to thank the U.S. IP for hosting this event for the two countries to exchange ideas and better understand our good will and efforts in war legacy cooperation as a whole and Vietnam's MIA assistance in particular and hopefully it will set the stage for more effective and practical cooperation in this regard in the future and it's an important part of the bilateral relationship which is being advanced by our leaders of the two countries. As you may know that 45 years has passed since the war and the consequence to Lin Xia and around 200,000 MIA needs to be located and recovered while it is increasing challenging to do so given the lack of information of the original location of death and burial, the protracted war the long time after burial and incomplete archives is also challenging because those who witnesses know about the MIAs are getting old with memory loss so we believe that international cooperation especially with the U.S. is one of the important and effective solutions in this regard and last July also in 2014 the invitation of the U.S. defense our delegation visited and worked with the U.S. counterparts and exchanged information on the Vietnamese MIAs missing in action and the two parties agreed to establish an arrangement to provide information and also to identify the human remains in Vietnam and also is recognized as a human action humanitarian action and we have seen good progress being made and on July 20 9 2021 the Office of the National Surgeon Committee 515 and the Office of the U.S. Defense Atheist in Vietnam signed an MOU on accounting for Vietnamese wartime MIAs and the signing ceremony was witnessed by the U.S. Secretary of Defense and our Minister of National Defense it marks an important milestone with the direction set by the leaders and also cooperation agreements signed by the defense ministries of the two countries at the same time is also a significant political move contributing to the U.S. Vietnam comprehensive partnership allows the people of Vietnam and the U.S. to better understand our legacy cooperation and MIA assistance in particular to the cooperation also to call on you to provide information documents, objects related to Vietnamese wartime MIAs from different sources at the U.S. disposal for example the intelligent documents dairy battles and you can combine relevant documents compare contrast and future information digitalized data from available records and transfer them to our office to support the location identification of our wartime MIAs we also call on you to engage organizations and individuals especially Vietnam war veterans in collecting sharing and providing Vietnam with information and documents to account for Vietnamese wartime MIAs it is a continuation of partnership in this area and third we call on you to share experiences in searching for U.S. service members missing and build our MIA search analysis and identification capacity we also expect you to support Vietnam in the form of training and equipment provision to conduct research investigation and excavation of areas and locations involving Vietnamese wartime MIAs to make the cooperation effective to strengthen the exchange of delegations experience information and records through diplomatic channels or by email or designate experts to provide and confirm information in person and hold regular meetings you'll like to thank Senator Patrick Leahy and relevant U.S. officials agencies and organizations for supporting Vietnam to address war legacies and especially to account for Vietnamese wartime MIAs it is part of the humanitarian action contributing to the broad based cooperation between the U.S. and Vietnam thank you very much thank you very much General Zung I know our colleagues in Hanoi are looking forward to working with you in your new position and we truly look forward to a time when we can welcome you to USIP to discuss these issues further with people important stakeholders in Washington when you're able to make it we're almost out of time so I'd like to just close by thanking our panelists for joining us to discuss this landmark new initiative I think we can all agree that this is important urgent work that we can all be proud of and again I hope we can have our panelists back at USIP in future years to celebrate the successes that will arise from this new effort I also hope that those in the audience will stay in touch with USIP as we expand our work on US Vietnam relations and Vietnam war legacy issues and the continuing search for deeper reconciliation and trust we're planning a robust slate of public events publications bilateral dialogues to focus attention on the importance of continuing to address the full range of war legacy issues including the impacts of Agent Orange and unexploded ordinance and also to support this new accounting initiative we also hope to highlight the lessons that the extraordinary story of US Vietnam relations over the last decades might apply elsewhere in the world most immediately I hope you'll be on the lookout later this year for part two of this discussion of the Vietnamese war time accounting initiative as Lisa Grande mentioned before we're going to convene another event that will bring together individuals personally connected to the US and Vietnamese remains recovering missions into the conversation and we look forward to audience engagement and that event as well so thank you again for joining us panelists and the audience this concludes our event for today thank you very much